Responsive Web Design

August 7th, 2013

We've all had the same frustrating problem: you visit a website on your smartphone or tablet and the formatting is so distorted that you look elsewhere. There's nothing more off putting for any mobile user, as you can't keep track of what you're doing (especially a nuisance for those online shoppers!) Responsive website design fixes this problem.Apple sold over 35 million iPhones in the first financial quarter of this year, Microsoft has just launched a new range of tablet computers and Smart TVs are being billed as ï¿½the next big thingï¿½. As the industry changes it is vital that businesses embrace these emerging technologies and adapt their online offering to improve functionality and increase accessibility.

Rather than creating a website for desktop viewing and an additional site for mobile viewing, responsive web design uses fluid grid layouts to adapt the design of a site to the relevant browser and screen size, whether that is a traditional PC screen, a tablet or a smartphone.

An obvious advantage of implementing responsive web design is improving usability and in the case of e-commerce sites, increasing conversions. Also, since responsive web design uses a single URL (separate mobile sites would need additional URLs) it makes it easier for users to interact with the site and share content. A single URL also streamlines the SEO process, as search engines such as Google do not have to plough through additional websites to analyse content.